Velvet

[Alba Cory]

Hi,

Having an outbreak of Velvet at the moment, affecting the majority of my fish as far as I can see. Today I have performed a 30% water change and removed carbon from my filter. Put in Melafix to try ease the suffering and have since added king British Bacteria Control but I don't think this will be enough to kill off the Velvet. My question is should I keep dosing with Melafix and find something else for the Velvet? The problem is it can't be copper based as I have shrimp in the tank and cannot remove them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[HUKIT]

Are you sure it's velvet, I think I've only seen two cases in many, many years?

I've heard that high heat and Kordons Ich Attack dosed at 4x the recommended dosage over the course of a couple of weeks. No personal experience but a club member tried and succeeded with that.

 

[Alba Cory]

Thanks for the reply, when lights are off and I shine a light in most fish have a layer of gold on their backs and gills so according to google it is velvet? I thought it was the beginning of ich with the flicking and rubbing but I noticed it first on my rummy noses, right down the back was like gold dust and at the top of the back just before the red part of them was an extra shiny clump of gold. Would you say it's velvet or does it sound like something else? I'm not sure what could of caused this, maybe stress? Water parameters are ammonia - 0 nitrite - 0 and nitrate 10. It's concerning that every fish seems to have it? I will be visiting my LFS today for advice but wanted to post here first as this seems pretty serious and I want to try save as many fish as I can!

 

[HUKIT]

Where are you located? Since different medications are not always available, I'd personally use General Cure by API which is safe for inverts.

 

[Alba Cory]

I'm in the uk, just looked on amazon for general cure and can't find any! Will have a look in some pet stores to see if I can find some. Thanks for the advice!

 

[HUKIT]

General Cure contains Praziquantel and Metrozoindale, is there any way to find that individually?

 

[Alba Cory]

Had a quick look about online and checked my current stock of chemicals and can't find anything with either of those. Will be visiting my LFS again either tomorrow or Saturday so will have a look.

 

[HUKIT]

I wish I could be more help but I know the medication selection and brand names are different on that side of the pond, let us know what you come across.

 

[Alba Cory]

You have been a great help, appreciate it and will let you know how it all works out!

 

[Pearly]

I think I'm dealing with velvet as well, did 3 days of Quick Cure, can't really tell the difference. The fish seem ok (no flashing or anything, they are eating and swimming as usual) water parameters are ok, did take the carbon out of the filters too. Any advice? On the bottle of Quick Cure the recommendation is only for 3 day round. Not sure what to do at this point. Also should I put new filters in now? The ones in place were about 2 weeks old and are well populated, I'm worried about wiping out bb

 

[Alba Cory]

Any luck on getting rid of the velvet? I am still dealing with it and not getting very far. Fish seem ok and are eating and swimming like normal but there is one guppy who seems to be having a harder time dealing with it and literally bounces off the sand to relieve the itch. I feel bad as there is nothing more I can do. The water is not looking good but can't do a water change yet as treatment not finished. I am at a loss as what I can do now, treated with velvet treatment, removed carbon, keep lights off and keep aeration high. No change in 5 days so far.

 

[Pearly]

I think I'm out of the woods in all 3 tanks I've managed to spread it to (if that is what it was, again, I'm just getting my feet wet at this). I so worry about my water parameters that no matter what... I just do pwc to give my fish some relief. Again, right or wrong I worry about their living environment (water to them is like the air we breathe). It took couple of days after completion of Mardel Quick Cure before they started acting "normal" but they seem ok now. Twice a day testing and wc's as indicated, good food.,, live plants... I think and hope is what is bringing my tanks back into the NORM and sweet harmony

 

[Alba Cory]

Good to hear your sorted. Just did a big water change and clean and added another dose of velvet treatment. Darkened the room as best as possible so hopefully see some improvement quickly. No fish loss so far and all fish seem to be swimming and eating fine just with red gills so hopefully we can sort it. Want to put in my new pair of honey gouramis who are in a QT tank just now. Male has beautiful colour so will be nervous to put them in at all as I am not sure how long after the gold has gone is it safe for new fish.

 

[Pearly]

The "gold dust" in couple of mine persisted for few days after treatment was done, tho fish started acting more like themselves by day #3 or so. It did mess up those tanks (or something else did, not sure what) bcs all 3 went into a mini cycle! What a PIA!!!! PWC's and testing twice a day, adding Stability (advised by my lfs folks) and Prime, and as of yesterday one of my small betta tanks (only 2.5 gal) tested 0 for ammonia and Nitrites, and nice orange color (!!!!!!yeah!!!!!!) for nitrates. The other 2 are coming out of the woods as well, the other 2.5 gal betta tank is showing just traces of ammonia and nitrites, nitrates are beginning to show up, and the community still struggling with ammonia (doing 50-60% wc's twice a day) and nitrites but they are going down and nitrates are showing up. My other 2 small betta tanks were unaffected so that leads me to believe that this mini-cycle got kicked off by some component of the velvet disease/treatment. I will sure be very glad when it's all over thank you for posting, it's good to know you are not that alone